Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. Buys Shares of 1,071 F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV)

Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. purchased a new position in F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,071 shares of the network technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of FFIV. Chase Investment Counsel Corp bought a new stake in F5 in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,726,000. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in shares of F5 by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 308,159 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $53,247,000 after purchasing an additional 11,525 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 195.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,994 shares of the network technology company’s stock valued at $4,170,000 after purchasing an additional 14,541 shares in the last quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd boosted its position in shares of F5 by 10.5% during the second quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd now owns 28,820 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $4,964,000 after buying an additional 2,730 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of F5 by 14.3% during the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 70,536 shares of the network technology company’s stock worth $15,532,000 after buying an additional 8,800 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Alan Higginson sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.65, for a total value of $201,650.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,159,066.55. This represents a 8.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Francis J. Pelzer sold 600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.50, for a total value of $130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,425 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,617,437.50. This trade represents a 1.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 4,475 shares of company stock valued at $977,039. Company insiders own 0.58% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on FFIV. StockNews.com raised F5 from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of F5 from $186.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of F5 from $212.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $214.00 to $246.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on F5 from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, F5 currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $233.56.

F5 Stock Performance

F5 stock opened at $250.07 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $228.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $198.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.07, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.05. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $159.01 and a 52 week high of $252.30.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The network technology company reported $3.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.45 by $0.22. F5 had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 20.13%. The business had revenue of $747.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $730.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 11.01 earnings per share for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, October 28th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the network technology company to buy up to 7.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

F5 Profile

F5, Inc provides multi-cloud application security and delivery solutions in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The company’s distributed cloud services enable its customers to deploy, secure, and operate applications in any architecture, from on-premises to the public cloud.